


Hold Onto What's Yours

by Verecunda



Category: The Girl in Lovers Lane (1960)
Genre: Extra Treat, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Jealousy, M/M, Missing Scene, Slight Canon Divergence, confused feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:09:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25811851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Verecunda/pseuds/Verecunda
Summary: After Bix extricates Danny from the brothel, both of them are forced to face feelings they hadn't recognised before.
Relationships: Bix Dugan/Danny Winslow
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5
Collections: Rare Pairs Exchange 2020





	Hold Onto What's Yours

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CousinShelley](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CousinShelley/gifts).



> I can't describe my glee when I saw a request for Danny/Big Stupid, and I couldn't resist writing a little something. It's only short, but I hope you like it. :)
> 
> In your letter you requested that your writer leave out the Carrie storyline. There is a very fleeting mention of Bix's curtailed date with Carrie in this fic, but no more than that. I hope that's okay. I think we can safely assume that in this continuum, the boys get together and Carrie lives, huzzah!

The walk from Sadie’s place back to the hotel mostly passed Danny by in a blur, and it wasn’t till he was lying down again that the fog in his brain cleared that he realised where he was and what was going on. He rolled over on his side, and there was Bix standing over by the dresser. Hearing the rustling of the bedclothes, he turned and chucked Danny his wallet back. They took one look at each other, then promptly burst out laughing.

Admittedly, it was a strange kind of laughing. It wasn’t like there was anything really funny going on. It was relief, more than anything. Somewhere, through the sour haze of cheap booze, he’d realised that this thing with Sadie wasn’t exactly the no-strings-attached deal he’d taken it for. But by that point it had seemed too late to back out - not to mention that he barely had the wherewithal to do anything other than go with the flow. So it was a strange sort of relief to come out the other end and find himself back in the safe familiarity of that shabby little hotel room, with Bix grinning that wry grin at him just a few feet away.

“Thanks,” he said at last, putting his wallet away securely in the drawer in the nightstand. It was going to be the death of him at this rate.

“Don’t mention it,” said Bix. “You sure are hard to keep up with, Danny-boy.”

“Yeah.” Now that the laughter had subsided he could feel the embarrassment sweeping in in its place. “I’m sorry. I guess that’s two nights in a row I’ve messed up your plans.”

Bix only shrugged, reaching for his cigarette packet and lighting one. “Don’t sweat it, kid. Just lucky I got back early enough to come looking for you before anything happened.”

“I guess so.” With a strange, sudden bashfulness, Danny studied the pattern on his sheets. When he looked up again, it was to find Bix studying him over his cigarette.

“Say, what were you thinking about, anyway, going off with that Sadie girl? Didn’t your old man never warn you ’bout dames like that?”

Heat flooded into Danny’s face. “Well, yeah. I just didn’t realise what was going on at first…” Abruptly, he broke off, cringing at how stupid and naïve the words made him sound, a feeling that wasn’t helped by the despairing sort of laugh that huffed in Bix’s throat.

“Why, what _did_ you think was going on, kid?”

The word _kid_ grated on his nerves like a file. _That_ was what it had all been about, after all. He’d been left feeling lonely and adrift while Bix went off on a walk with Carrie. Then there was Sadie, all smiles and sweethearts, and somehow it had just popped into his head that yeah, he could do this, that would prove he could handle himself in the real world, whatever Bix said. Only he’d managed to completely miss what was really happening. So much for being able to stand on his own two feet.

“Hey.” Taking a last deep drag, Bix stubbed out the end of his cigarette and came over to sit on the edge of the bed next to him. Danny didn’t look up, but he felt the old mattress dip sharply beneath his weight. “Hey, no need to get all sulky on me. Ain’t nothing to be ashamed about. There’s just some things nice clean-cut boys like you don’t need to know about, is all.”

His voice was unusually gentle, and despite himself, Danny glanced up to catch the hint of a smile at the edges of Bix’s mouth as he peered at him.

“You can say that,” he said quietly. “You’re not the one who keeps getting into situations like these.”

“Well then.” Bix nudged him. “Just as well you got me here to keep you on the straight and narrow then, ain’t it?”

Danny’s mouth gave a faint twitch. “Is that why you came after me tonight? Just to keep me out of trouble?”

He expected Bix to scoff it off in his usual way, but to his surprise Bix didn’t quite meet his eyes, gaze glancing away from his to study the bedcovers just as Danny himself had been doing a minute earlier. Something about this reaction sparked a strange, nameless kind of excitement deep in Danny’s chest, and he felt his pulse gave a little start.

“Bix?”

It took a second or two for Bix to come up with a reply: “Don’t kid yourself, Danny-boy, I came to make sure you didn’t go losing none of our bread.”

But his tone lacked its usual self-assurance, and Danny felt his strange sense of excitement increase. Excitement — and concern, too.

“Bix, what is it?”

“It’s nothing,” Bix muttered. “Just forget it.”

But Danny wasn’t to be shrugged off so easily this time. Pulled on by some instinct, he sat up until he was eye to eye with Bix, then reached out, gently, to take him by the shoulder. At that, Bix stirred — slowly, as if against his better judgement — and looked up. His deep-set eyes met Danny’s, and something in them seemed to react with the feeling in Danny’s chest, so that it filled the space between them like an electric charge. Then, without really thinking what he was doing, Danny leaned in and grazed his lips against Bix’.

But almost at once, Bix shrugged away from him, shaking his head. “No.”

Danny’s heart lurched, but he held on. “Bix…”

“This is no good, Danny, you hear me? It’s no good.” 

There was something frightened, almost desperate, there in Bix’s eyes, but it wasn’t disgust, or anything like that, which encouraged Danny to ask, “What isn’t?”

Bix grasped his wrists, but didn’t pull his hands away. Instead he just held on tight, fingers pressing bluntly into his skin. “Like I said, there’s some things you don’t need to know too much about. One’s dames like Sadie; the other’s bums like me.”

Danny stared at him. His heart was beating fast and hard, and he was stunned — at himself and at the whole situation — but somehow Bix’s words pierced through it all and made his heart turn over in his chest. 

“Don’t say that.”

“Why not?” Bix shot back. “It’s true. You know what I am, man, you’ve seen the way I live. I’m a no-good slob, I’ve always been a no-good slob. I ain’t no good for you, Danny, that’s the end of it, and if you had any sense, you’d run a hundred miles in the opposite direction.”

“I’m not running anywhere, Bix,” said Danny softly.

It took a long moment or two for Bix to realise the truth of that, and when it did, his whole face changed. Something like a shadow seemed to lift from it, and he stared at Danny as if overcome by something he had never even imagined existed before.

“Hey — you’re not, are you?”

Danny shook his head, smiling, and leaned in again. And this time, Bix met him halfway. His mouth was warm, and tasted bitter with the last traces of his cigarette, but somehow it was sweet, sweeter than Danny could ever have imagined: sweet and slow and _right_ as they both felt their way into this new territory.

Once, Bix broke away just long enough to huff a soft laugh. “Oh, Danny, you’re killin’ me.”

Then they were kissing again, and neither of them said anything else for a long time.


End file.
